We received 356 manuscript suites from poets writing across the African continent and its global diaspora—a sweeping archive of thousands of individual poems submitted to the inaugural cycle of the Alhaji Arole Agarawu African Poetry Prize.
What emerges across these submissions is a profound ethnological tapestry: poets reaching into ancient oral lineages, interrogating the weight of inherited grief, and documenting contemporary migration, urban endurance, and intimate joy. Across historical epochs and geographies, these 30 longlisted suites sound the gong of an African poetic tradition that is as formally daring as it is deeply anchored in communal memory.
The Longlisted Suites
“Bright Poems of Lyric”
Bright Aboagye
Ghana
“Decolonized Ear”
Daniel Naawenkangua Abukuri
Ghana
“Tattoo For Survivors Of Suicide”
Adegoke Adeola
Nigeria
“Alfred: Cantos”
Isaiah Adepoju
Nigeria
“In the Fusillade”
Samuel Adeyemi
Nigeria
“Dog Fighting a Heron”
Ameen Animashaun
United States
“EGG RACE & other poems”
Kayode Ayobami
Nigeria
“Tegument”
Olumide Manuel Ayodele
Nigeria
“Ordinary Tenderness”
Emmanuel Chukwu
Nigeria
“Bonu Bonu Kpoo”
Edinam Denoo
Ghana
“God Is Late Again”
Felix Eshiet
Nigeria
“Infest”
Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe
Nigeria
“The Lord of Loneliness”
Rafiat Lamidi
Nigeria
“By The Sweat of The Mountain's Brow”
Sydney Mayes
United States
“A Catalog of Soft Ruins”
Alhassan Mohammed
Ghana
“Ndombolo Creation Story”
Migwi Mwangi
United States
“Monologue with God in his Bivouac”
Blessing Omeiza Ojo
Nigeria
“Poem For The Imperialist Lion Munching On My Ivory Bone, And Other Poems”
Michael Okafor
Nigeria
“Litany of a Dying Father”
Chisom Okoronkwo
United Kingdom
“Aubade for the Living”
Obinna Okwesili
Nigeria
“Ten Poems%!”
A Oladejo
Nigeria
“The Proverbial Ram”
Adesiyan Oluwapelumi
Nigeria
“John the Baptist”
Chiwenite Onyekwelu
Nigeria
“Litany for the Body I Keep”
Henry Opeyemi
Nigeria
“Manifesto of some sort & other poems”
Joel Oyèlékè
Nigeria
“Transcedence and other poems”
Tamani Tatiana Sale
Nigeria
“African Metaphysics: A Relational Ontology and Other Poems”
Kevin Daniel Scheepers
South Africa
“Baggage of Assorted Wishes”
Rasheed Ayinla Shehu Shehu
Nigeria
“All the lost, wandering cities and the bleeding people that love them and other poems”
Aishat Yahkub
Nigeria
“Grains of Paradise”
Salma Abdulatif Yusuf
Kenya